Posts Tagged ‘Ford mobility’

Ford putting down a pretty penny to promote the "mobility" side of the company.

Ford is earnestly trying to reshape its image as an automotive AND a mobility company and it’s taking to arguably the world’s biggest stage to keep up the image makeover momentum: the Super Bowl LI.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker is using its part of its 90-second commercial during the match up between the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots to hype its mobility products.

News Now!

Considering that 30-second spots go for more than $5 million, it’s hefty price to pay for something that still in the larval stage. It’s the company’s first Super Bowl ad since 2014 features a string of humorous footage of people getting stuck in life circumstances. (more…)

Pretty soon, Ford will allow anyone to buy and finance a new vehicle using a mobile device.

Ford Motor Co. is teaming up with a San Francisco start up to offer customers a way to purchase or finance a new Ford vehicle in minutes from anywhere, on any device through a new platform from Ford Motor Credit Co. and its new partner AutoFi.

The move by Ford follows similar moves recently by Daimler and Volkswagen AG into the mobile payments sector. Daimler and Volkswagen said they are initially targeting mobile apps for parking and car sharing, but the basic target of making it easier for youthful consumers to purchase vehicle-oriented services is essentially the same.

Will brands matter when you don't own a car anymore, but rely on ride-sharing services, asks Ford?

Brands carry tremendous power in today’s auto industry. Say the names Ford, Toyota, General Motors or Volkswagen and you’re likely to immediately conjure up a clear image about things like design, performance, quality and reliability.

Brand image translates into sales and owner loyalty, said Bill Ford, the chairman of Ford Motor Co. But in an appearance following the media preview of the North American International Auto Show, the executive questioned whether automotive brands could become irrelevant in the near future.

Your Crystal Ball to the Future!

“What will brands mean in an autonomous world,” said Ford, the great-grandson of Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford.

Ford has to decide where to place its bets in a world where this is a "panoply" of options.

When the economy began to melt down in 2008, Ford Motor Co. learned the hard way that the only constant is change. And it’s a lesson Bill Ford, the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford and the carmaker’s current chairman, isn’t about to forget.

It helped to spend 11 years on the board of e-commerce giant eBay, the executive noted during a technology conference at Ford corporate headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan on Tuesday. The event was intended to show how a company long viewed as a ponderous, Rust Belt relic was, in many ways, moving as fast as the oft-heralded start-ups of Silicon Valley.

Insight!

“Many of the things we’re doing are far afield from a traditional car company,” Ford stressed. We’re disrupting ourselves. But rather than looking at it as scary, it’s a tremendous business opportunity.”

Ford CEO Mark Fields holds a downsized Velodyne LIDAR "puck" that will be used on Fusion autonomous vehicle prototypes.

Ford Motor Co. outlined a far-reaching step into the future during a keynote speech by CEO Mark Fields marking the opening of the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The maker is putting “one foot into the future,” said Fields, as it expands from traditional automotive manufacturing into new areas of “mobility,” such as ride and car-sharing. Among a variety of projects announced by Fields, Ford will partner with Amazon to incorporate the cloud-based voice assistant, Alexa into its vehicles. That would allow a driver to not just open a garage door but turn on lights and adjust the thermostat by voice command.

Tech Talk!

The Tuesday morning event notably included no mention of a widely anticipated tie-up between Ford and Google, even though the automaker announced a major expansion in its own autonomous vehicle program. But CEO Fields left the door open to a later announcement, stressing that Ford is talking with “a variety of other potential partners.”

Ford CEO Mark Fields announced plans to implement some of the programs being testing in the maker's Smart Mobility plan.

Ford Motor Co. says its ready to implement some the lessons learned from a research program that delves into the changing landscape of mass mobility in era of smart phones and instant connectivity that was launched only six months ago.

Mark Fields, Ford chief executive officer, said the automakers operate pilot projects keyed to Ford Smart Mobility and move from research to the start of implementation, of new mobility products.

Stay Informed!

“We now are moving from experimentation to implementation,” said Mark Fields, Ford president and CEO, at the annual said at the annual Further with Ford trends conference in San Francisco. (more…)